I have read many different accounts of why there was no response. One account even speculated that the Californian wasn't the “mystery ship” at all. But I think that theory was shot down during the inquiry. Whatever the truth was, there is no doubt in my mind that Captain Lord had to have carried guilt with him to his grave. I don't know what maritime protocol was, but if I were in sight of another ship shooting off flares in the middle of the night..I'd have to check it out.
She just went down so quickly. Totally amazes me.
(BTW, I sat down tonight to watch a Night To Remember...and realized that I don't get TCM! Shows how much tv I watch. I was disappointed since I hadn't seen it is a long while.)
I kept getting phone calls last night, so could only watch the movie in bits and pieces. Sigh. It looked great what I saw. Guess I’ll have to see if I can find it on DVD.
As for James Cameron’s version, I agree, the Jack/Rose story was ridiculous. We’re supposed to feel sorry for Rose...who ditched her fiancee to party with Leonardo down in third class, (where the people were so much nicer and more fun, of course!) And she not only sleeps with Leo after just meeting him a day or two before, but she rubs her fiancee’s nose in it by posing nude for Leo and leaving the drawing where the fiancee will find it. Yes, the fiancee was a jerk, but still!
One thing I did love about the movie was the costumes, though. After two hours of sitting in the theater and looking at those beautiful costumes, I left the theater, and I felt like I’d gone back in time and just returned. There were all these people walking around wearing sweatpants that clung to every inch of their flab, ripped jeans, T-shirts with crude sayings on them, etc. The same clothing that had looked perfectly normal to me two hours earlier now looked so ugly and unflattering. It was an odd feeling.